Review: After the Kiss (Sex, Love & Stiletto #1) by Lauren Layne

The star columnist of Stiletto magazine will do anything for a story.
Anything . . . except fall in love.
Julie Greene loves flings, steamy first dates, sizzling first kisses, and - every now and then - that first sexy romp between the sheets. But when Julie gets assigned the hardest story of her career - a first-person account of the shift between dating and "I do" she'll need a man brave enough to give a total commitment-phobe a chance at more.
Mitchell Forbes, a devastatingly hot workaholic who tends to stay in relationships for far too long, is the perfect subject for Julie's "research." But what Julie doesn't know is that Mitchell is looking to cut loose and that Julie, notorious for avoiding love, is exactly the type of no-strings fling he's looking for...

One of my all time favourite tropes is when two characters
are forced in to a situation together and they end up falling for one another.
In After the Kiss Julie is known for quick flings, never taking time to settle
and actually forming a meaningful relationship and Mitchell is the setting type
of guy, he’s just come out of a long term relationship, but to prove to his
friend that he can do a quick fling and get rid of a person after a few dates,
he’s challenged to take on Julie. Both Julie and Mitchell go into their tasks
with their own agenda’s, but they so didn’t expect leaving with much more than
they bargained for.

Both Julie and Mitchell were difficult characters to like at
first, Julie was the type just to quickly go for a relationship, I think
because she hadn’t really been in love, or actually spent long enough in a
relationship to fall in love, she was just used to appear crass and abrupt. And
my gosh when I first met Mitchell I thought he was a complete bore, okay I
perked up when I heard he liked reading, but the way he came across all prim
and proper and working on Wall Street, I thought the chemistry between Mitchell
and Julie would be a complete snooze fest, but never has Lauren Layne led me
astray, of course she was able to weave her magic and actually make me fall for
Mitchell (did I ever mention that Mitchell/Mitch has always been a bit of a
soft spot when it comes to hot characters names?) and actually develop Julie’s
and Mitchell’s relationship into something realistic and meaningful. You have
to remember the time they spent happens over days and a few weeks even, but the
way Layne built up their time together and the way they got to know each other?
It was done wonderfully, I was left wanting more. I wanted them to finally come
clean with each other about why they’d got together in the first place, as I
knew it would lead to heartbreak in the end and they had come so far, through
going to a night club instead of having movie night, runs through Central Park
and dealing with bitchy ex girlfriends, their relationship was actually
becoming that and their feelings for one another were clearly apparent.

I’m not going to say how After the Kiss ends, but there is a
lot of heartbreak and growing up along the way. I was super impressed with how
far these two characters came by the end of this book. After the First Kiss was
another hit by Lauren Layne for me, thank you Nick for recommending it, I’m
hoping this series will fill the void left after finishing The Wedding Bells
series and to be honest I can feel a binge reading coming on!

10 comments:

I love this book and series and am SO glad you enjoyed it, Jasprit! I think these two are still my favorite couple of the series but it's such a solid binge-read series and I can't wait to see what you make of the companion novels! Wonderful review, dearest!

I'm thrilled you enjoyed it, Jasprit. I just re-read it over the weekend, and I think I liked it even more the second time around! I definitely agree about Mitchell. My first impressions weren't that great, but wow! He turned out to be so sexy. He and Julie together were a blast! I'm so happy you're a LL fan too now, Jasprit! :) Lovely review!

I seriously miss those sorts of romances. Ever since my job I'm only reading YA. But this book sounds right up my street so I think I need to read this in my holiday for definite. Great review, Jas! :)

What a cute cover! I also like the trope in which the universe throws the characters together. Works really well with the hate-to-love trope. ;) It sounds like you have a thing for Mitchell's. :D I'm glad you enjoyed this book, Jasprit!

Well, I’m not sure how I feel about this new cover… Lauren Layne is one of my favourite authors, but I still managed not to read her Sex, Love & Stiletto series. Shame on me. I need to finally pick it up. Glad to hear despite your first difficulties this romance won you over. Lauren Layne writes best romances.